Local comedian wins competition

"So You Think You’re Funny" winner Michael Craig performs at a show. Craig will open for a major comedy headliner at the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in September or October.

By TRISTA PRUETT / Daily News

Published: Saturday, May 24, 2014 at 05:13 PM.

DESTIN - While working in a comedy club in Birmingham 15 years ago, Michael Craig would wait until everyone had left and he would get up on the stage.

He would stare out at the empty chairs for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, just imagining what it would be like to be in front of an audience, making everyone laugh.

"Now I get to do what I never thought I was going to do," Craig said.

On May 18, Craig won the "So You Think You’re Funny" comedy competition at the Crab Island Cantina in Destin. The first prize for the competition is the chance to open for a major headliner at the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Craig said that he first started performing comedy in 2004, while living in Richmond, Va.

After performing on the east coast for a while, Craig moved to Vegas, and then moved back to Florida, where he met his wife.

After settling down, he assumed his days of comedy were done. Then he heard about the comedy competition in his town.

He said his wife has supported him through the entire process. In addition to the competition, Craig recently finished his college degree and the couple has a 3-year-old daughter.

"[My wife] is pushing me to try and follow this dream," he said. "It was very difficult, to say the least, but it looks like it all paid off."

The competition was broken into 16 weeks of preliminary rounds and four weeks of final rounds. During the first 16 weeks, a winner was chosen each week. Those rounds were open to anyone.

"We had some very unique people come out of the woodwork," said comedian Ed Joseph, one of the master-minds behind the competition. "Everyone had fun."

Joseph and Crab Island Cantina owner Carlos Chaffron came up with the idea of a competition after an unsuccessful attempt at hosting an open mic night.

Chaffron had connections with comedy circles in Los Angeles, and he and Joseph decided to try hosting a competition. In addition to the first prize winner going to open a show in Los Angeles, the second place winner will headline a show in either Orlando or Atlanta.

Joseph said he hopes that the competition will launch a comedy circuit across Northwest Florida.

Craig said his act usually involves a storyline talking about his family, and at the end, he does some impressions.

"I do a really good impression of Gilbert Gottfried," Craig said.

Other impressions include Martin Luther King, Jr., Al Pacino, Bernie Mac and Christopher Walken. The impressions are popular, not only with audiences, but with his daughter.

"I read Mother Goose nursery rhymes to her as Christopher Walken," Craig said. He said she often asks, "Daddy, will you read bedtime stories to me in one of your funny voices?"

He said the support he received during the competition has been fantastic, including people who he hadn’t seen since high school coming out to support him.

"This is all still so overwhelming. I don’t even think this has all sunk in yet. I feel very fortunate," Craig said.

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published
without permission. Links are encouraged.

DESTIN - While working in a comedy club in Birmingham 15 years ago, Michael Craig would wait until everyone had left and he would get up on the stage.

He would stare out at the empty chairs for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, just imagining what it would be like to be in front of an audience, making everyone laugh.

"Now I get to do what I never thought I was going to do," Craig said.

On May 18, Craig won the "So You Think You’re Funny" comedy competition at the Crab Island Cantina in Destin. The first prize for the competition is the chance to open for a major headliner at the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Craig said that he first started performing comedy in 2004, while living in Richmond, Va.

After performing on the east coast for a while, Craig moved to Vegas, and then moved back to Florida, where he met his wife.

After settling down, he assumed his days of comedy were done. Then he heard about the comedy competition in his town.

He said his wife has supported him through the entire process. In addition to the competition, Craig recently finished his college degree and the couple has a 3-year-old daughter.

"[My wife] is pushing me to try and follow this dream," he said. "It was very difficult, to say the least, but it looks like it all paid off."

The competition was broken into 16 weeks of preliminary rounds and four weeks of final rounds. During the first 16 weeks, a winner was chosen each week. Those rounds were open to anyone.

"We had some very unique people come out of the woodwork," said comedian Ed Joseph, one of the master-minds behind the competition. "Everyone had fun."

Joseph and Crab Island Cantina owner Carlos Chaffron came up with the idea of a competition after an unsuccessful attempt at hosting an open mic night.

Chaffron had connections with comedy circles in Los Angeles, and he and Joseph decided to try hosting a competition. In addition to the first prize winner going to open a show in Los Angeles, the second place winner will headline a show in either Orlando or Atlanta.

Joseph said he hopes that the competition will launch a comedy circuit across Northwest Florida.

Craig said his act usually involves a storyline talking about his family, and at the end, he does some impressions.

"I do a really good impression of Gilbert Gottfried," Craig said.

Other impressions include Martin Luther King, Jr., Al Pacino, Bernie Mac and Christopher Walken. The impressions are popular, not only with audiences, but with his daughter.

"I read Mother Goose nursery rhymes to her as Christopher Walken," Craig said. He said she often asks, "Daddy, will you read bedtime stories to me in one of your funny voices?"

He said the support he received during the competition has been fantastic, including people who he hadn’t seen since high school coming out to support him.

"This is all still so overwhelming. I don’t even think this has all sunk in yet. I feel very fortunate," Craig said.